“In 1969, in the revolution in the Church, Catholic authority split from Catholic truth. And ever since, all Catholics are more or less schizophrenic.”—Bishop Williamson.
We have seen a new divide in the traditional Catholic movement over the impending consecrations of the SSPX bishops now in 2026. Many of the same people who have warmly preached last year, “let’s be united in the Latin Mass” have now thrown the harshest condemnations against other traditionalists who disagree with them on the SSPX.
Why is this? It is because Catholics must now choose between truth and authority. Of course, that last sentence reads as very Protestant, and I admit it. Never in the history of the world have Catholics had to choose between the true faith and legitimate authority before the 20th century, except maybe the Arian crisis. And even then, it was only a dilemma in certain locations of the Empire of the 4th century.
But if the 20th century “Third Secret of Fatima” was indeed “apostasy from the top-down” (as everyone who has read it implies) then we are in uncharted territories of balancing obedience to God and balancing obedience to man.
I believe this tension was explained in the most charitable way by Bishop Williamson, a great man who I knew in real life (for I visited him in the UK several years ago) and who I interviewed here before his repose in the Lord in 2025. Below is his explanation on why authority has split from truth and why every good Catholic is now unfortunately “schizophrenic.” It is a repost from my original site, originally titled A Circular Firing Squad of Catholics.
Continue reading at Padre Peregrino